The Master is Calling! : "Heavenly Father... what do you think about?"

My Dearest Family and Friends,

Hola, y'all.

This week has been crazy! I am honestly a little more insane now than
I was last week, and that's saying something. Monday was the best as
usual, it was nice to have some relaxation time and not really do
anything crazy for preparation day. This week we're going to go
golfing with Eric Gardner (The Gardner's are the family we live with)
and Paxton Boyce (The family we do cookie night with)! It's going to
be sweet!

Tuesday was where all the craziness started. We had to drop off our
truck for an oil change that morning and then we walked five miles
back to the apartment. As we were walking up the Gardners long
driveway, Justin Gardner pulled up and asked if we needed a ride haha.
Good timing, right? Justin is the Gardners oldest son who came back
from college to visit for a week. I've been staying at the Gardners
for 6 months and never met him, so it was good to finally meet him
this week. It sufficeth me to stay that he is quite awesome. Justin
offered us a ride to go get our truck when we needed to, and invited
us to go to lunch with him and our bishop. Lunch was AMAZING. You
might be wondering why am wasting your time talking about a random
lunch, but people, I ordered a chicken teriyaki sandwich and it had
glazed pineapple on it!!! It was SO GOOD. I don't know why that blew
my mind and my tastebuds, but it just did.

ANYways, after lunch we were able to get our truck back and go get
ready to be gone all week! We left at about 6 that night and arrived
at the home we were staying at around 10 because we had to deliver all
the other missionaries to the members they were staying with. We
stayed up late that night because we were supposed to read the whole
missionary handbook by the next day and we hadn't had time, so we read
the whole thing again and underlined all the alwayses and nevers till
midnight. I was dead tired. The next morning we had our first meeting
with Elder Dyches and the top half of the mission. It was SO GOOD. I
absolutely love hearing direction from apostles of the Lord,
especially when it's in small little groups like this because it is
unscripted and they go completely by the spirit. You can FEEL the
spirit filling their mouths as they speak and it's like their words
instantly touch your heart.

One of the things that hit me the hardest from our first meeting with
Elder Dyches was the idea that we need to recite the things we
memorize and share with investigators a lot slower. We shouldn't rush
through the words in an attempt to get through everything and say it
right. We should say it slowly so that they can really feel the spirit
and not be so focused on trying to catch all the words you're saying.
If we do that, the spirit will bring all things to our remembrance and
we will be able to recite it well. It requires a little more trust and
a little more patience but it ought to really help us out. There were
a million other things that I learned and loved, but there is not
enough time to share all of them.

After that meeting, the rest of our zone headed back to Kalispell and
we began our lonely trek to Billings. MY luggage was absolutely soaked
because of the rain so we had to throw some garbage bags over it. The
roads on the way to Billings were AWFUL haha. We drove through a
blizzard. WHAT?? It's may. YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE
BLIZZARDS IN MAY. Anyways, we made it safely to billings around
10:00, threw my stuff in the dryer at the assistants apartment and zonked.

The next day we had our second meeting with Elder Dyches and the
bottom half of the mission. This meeting was equally awesome and there
were a lot of new insights I received. One of the biggest during this
meeting was the comparing of mentoring and training. We want to make
certain that we are not just training them but mentoring them. Working
with them, leading by example, loving them! He also taught us that "It
is much easier to be critical than correct." I love that quote, it
makes you think twice.

After that meeting with Elder Dyches, all the Zone Leaders and Sister
Training Leaders had the incredible opportunity to go to the temple!
It was so nice to go after not being able to for a whole year!! As I
prayed in the temple, I felt like I was having a conversation with my
Heavenly Father, as I always do when I'm in the temple. I thought of a
quote Elder Dyches had shared from Albert Einstein: Somebody asked him
what he would ask God if he could ask him anything, and Albert
Einstein expressed that he would ask him what he thinks about. I was
pondering on that in the temple when I realized, "here I am talking to
God, wondering how he could answer this question I have. I could
simply ask him right now!" And so I asked, Heavenly Father... What do
you think about? Before I could really finish the question I heard the
clear and beautiful answer, "YOU."

If I could share only one thing with everyone I love, I would have
them know this, that God spends His time thinking about you, about me,
about everyone on this earth. We are His children, His pride and joy!
His work and His glory is to bring about our immortality and our
eternal life with Him and our families. That is what God wants for us.
I love this understanding I have gained.

I don't have much time, but MLC the next morning was awesome. We
learned a great deal and got pumped to go teach and lead. After MLC we
headed back toward Bozeman to stay the night. In Bozeman we stayed
with Elder's Pett and Baum. Elder Pett trained Elder Christensen at
the beginning of his mission, so their reunion was adorable. They ran
off to Belgrade Montana to see some of their Converts and Elder Baum
and I stayed and did work in Bozeman. We didn't see the other two till
later that night... and no one stopped talking till even later haha.

The next morning we drove the last 5-6 hours home after our morning
routine. I didn't eat dinner, I just went right to sleep, and woke up
after dinner to go contact some of our investigators. We were lucky
enough to find Mike Roberts at home! I was dead tired the whole
lesson, but it was good.

Sunday was ELDER CHRISTENSEN'S BIRTHDAY!! I was able to secure him a
Pita Pit gift card because he is absolutely obsessed with that place
haha. It was a super good day, full of singing the happy birthday song
to embarrass him, good food, gifts, and tracting!! haha

Anyways, I love you all:)

Love,
Elder Thomas

My trainees :) :)